This book offers an autoethnographic exploration of the interplay of art, memory, and resilience in Eastern Europe, weaving together the personal and collective histories of Belarusians – those who survived two world wars and their contemporaries, who are now looking for a way out of a political crisis in the region.

Set against the history of Belarus, it recounts the story of the author’s great-grandfather Amyalyan, a Belarusian peasant executed by the Nazis after saving a Jewish man during World War I, along with reflections on artists like Chaim Soutine and Marc Chagall, whose journeys reflect the region’s cultural endurance. Combining autoethnography and art history, this book presents art as a medium of empathy, challenging readers to engage with paintings emotionally rather than through a purely analytical lens. Each chapter functions as both a historical reflection and an invitation to see art as a means of reclaiming personal narratives, making historical traumas accessible and relatable. Themes of compassion, forgiveness, and the humanizing power of art emerge as essential elements, guiding readers through the complex intersections of personal and collective memory.

This book is a valuable addition for researchers and students interested in ethnography and autoethnography, Eastern European studies, art history, cultural studies and memory studies.

Victor Martinovich, PhD, is an art historian, fiction writer and playwright from Belarus. He is an Associate Professor at European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania), and was a grantee of the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program in 2024. Martinovich is the author of six fiction novels and seven theatrical plays, and plays based on his works have been staged in Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Minsk, Innsbruck, and St. Petersburg. He specializes in Paris School artists from Belarus, the Vitebsk period of Marc Chagall, and the history of the Vitebsk Avant-Garde.